Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

“Okay, so what is the plan here? Your brother is going to get here soon, I assume?” Grace winced. Simon was as blunt as he ever was. Grace normally found his low grumbly voice to be pleasant on his ears. After all, it was the only real human voice he’d heard for decades. It was less pleasant now, what with the pounding headache.

Grace stubbornly didn’t meet his eyes. Simon was sitting just to the left of him, perched in an uncomfortable hospital chair that was just a bit too small for him. Grace crashing a car wasn’t actually the oddest thing that had happened to either of them this week, which would’ve been a wild thing to think even a week ago – however he wanted to interpret the concept of the past. The last thing he really remembered of Erid was falling asleep beside Simon, in their comfortable bed repurposed from the remains of the Hail Mary and thinking that he lived a good, long life. That maybe he would be at peace with dying now.

They’d spent thirty good years together, but time wasn’t kind to either of them. The Eridians tried their best, and Grace spent every single day on Erid in awe of everything they managed to do for the aliens that had unexpectedly shown up on their door. There was nowhere in the known universe that Grace would rather die than tucked safely under the gaze of his best friend.

Despite that, both Grace and Simon were dying when they had gotten to Erid. The kinds of things they experienced didn't tend to lead to long healthy lives, no matter the level of medical care they received. Grace suspected Simon was beginning to show relapses into the cancer that had plagued him ten years earlier. Meanwhile, Grace spent most of his last few years bed bound or propped up on a couch. The gravity wasn’t kind to him and his bone density still held the scars from prolonged malnutrition.

Simon tried not to mention it, but Grace also knew that Simon grew concerned at the lapses in Grace’s memory as he aged. The Grace that Simon knew never had the greatest memory, but this was different from the gaps that remained from the drug Stratt gave him.

He knew it didn't bode well for his future. Sometimes he’d wake up and he wasn’t sure where he was or who was laying next to him, which Grace knew always scared the cheese out of Simon and Rocky. The corresponding freak outs that Grace himself had didn’t help either, despite how well Simon got at helping Grace through them.

Memory issues were so alien to Rocky that he didn’t quite understand what it meant the first time Grace had to explain it to him, and what the typical progression for a disease like dementia was.

So, when Grace woke up in an unfamiliar bed he didn't question it. He let himself drift back into that space in-between sleep and lucidity. It was only when he reached over to try to find Simon that Grace figured out he wasn’t where he was supposed to be. The shock jerked awake at that point and stared, wide-eyed, at what must’ve been the lousy apartment when he had just started teaching.

He couldn't fully recognize the furniture or anything else in the room, long forgotten over the years. Despite the unfamiliarity, a sense of recognition had sunk in.

The realization that he'd found himself stuck back on Earth sent Grace into a mental breakdown the likes of which he hadn't had in years. He tore the apartment apart, thinking maybe there was some clue for him to find that would lead him back to his happily ever on an alien planet 16.3 light years away. By the time he had exited the fugue state that had engulfed him there had been dozens of half graded papers swirling in the air around him and he was no closer to getting home.

While he was watching the papers flutter around he also became aware of another fact. He stared woodenly at the clock above the stove that was blinking 10:24 AM at him. Far too late to justify as regular tardiness. This started another mad scrabble where he attempted to find his phone to call in and explain it away as a family emergency or maybe as some sort of illness. Whatever excuse they'd take, he'd give.

Grace had thanked every god above and below that he bothered to put his principal’s contact information in his phone as ‘Principal Perry (Boss)’. He didn’t remember her at all, but she’d seemed understanding enough over the phone and let him take the rest of the day off. He knew his hysteria probably leaked into the voice during their call despite his best efforts.

Grace then had sat his butt down, and went down a forum rabbit hole unlike any he’d ever done before. He had vague memories of the Petrova line starting as a post on an astronomy board he’d subscribed to years ago. He couldn’t remember why he ever put himself on the emailing list, but he didn’t think he ever posted on it. Maybe he just stole some of the nicer photos to put on his PowerPoints? Everything about his life on Earth seemed so foggy and the panic didn't help.

He went through all three of his emails, attempting to find the astronomy board. When he eventually found it, he went through darn near every single thread on the board attempting to find Irina Petrova’s original post. He couldn’t find it. Grace didn’t remember the date when the Petrova crisis actually started, but if he was already teaching than it had to be soon. He set up various Google and news alerts for ‘Petrova’ just in case in missed the original post somehow.

Giving up on that loose end, Grace gave himself the rest of the day to grieve his old life and to prepare for the next. In the process, he found and then sobbed through an entire bag of microwavable burritos. He had forgotten how good human food could taste. On Erid, the monotony of his own meat and vitamin soda almost drove him crazy.

Perry had told him that there wouldn’t be a sub available tomorrow, so he needed to figure something out for the kids. Grace couldn’t remember any of his old lesson plans that were made for human children, and he couldn’t really figure out what the kids were learning based on the scattered exams surrounding him, so he planned on a movie day. There was probably something that he could put on while Grace tried to wrap his head around what happened to him.

When it came time for him to sleep, he just fell on top of the messy bed and took way too much melatonin he found laying in a cabinet. It seemed to work, judging by the dreamless sleep.

The next school day went as well as it could’ve given the circumstances. Grace clearly wasn’t alright, and the whale documentary might’ve been off topic from what the kids were actually learning – Grace suspected they were actually supposed to be learning about tectonic plates given what was last open on the work laptop he’d left at the school the last time he was there – but his eighth graders seemed to be into the whales so it probably wasn’t that big of a deal.

While the documentary played, Grace tried and failed to not think about Rocky. He desperately hoped that Rocky hadn’t found himself stuck amongst dying crew mates, uselessly trying to save Erid – waiting on Grace to show up so that they could save their planets together. The image had Grace so worked up, he spent the better half of his lunch break hyperventilating in the private teacher's bathroom. The rest of it he spent with a cold compress made with paper towels and ice from the break room over his eyes. He didn’t want the kids to see how swollen and red they were. Given the way the kids kept glancing at him after, he figured he wasn’t too successful.

If he wasn’t thinking about Rocky, he found himself thinking about Simon. Grace wasn’t religious in the same complicated way that Simon could sometimes be. Still, Grace had hoped to any god listening (Simon’s or otherwise) that Simon wasn’t currently stuck in solitary confinement or even worse, stuck in that horrific submarine they’d found him in. The images of the inside of the terrible thing looped in Grace’s mind, even if Grace never really knew all that happened in it.

It was so bizarre. There wasn’t a day in the past thirty years that Grace could remember the absence of Rocky or Simon. He kept trying to turn, to make a snarky comment that would make Rocky would do his little chortle or Simon smile in that soft way of his.

The other issue was Colt, another thing he couldn’t bear to think about. Grace couldn’t remember if Colt was still on speaking terms with him or not. Things had ended so ugly between them. In the moment, Grace still thought he had time, that he could reach out to him and fix what went wrong between them. But the moment had passed before he knew it. Stratt shooting him straight into the stratosphere didn’t help, but sometimes Grace couldn’t help but think that he never would’ve made up with Colt anyways. He was too cowardly to admit that he was in the wrong.

When the last bell rung, Grace knew it hadn't been the worst day of his life. That didn't make it a good one, though.

By the time he got to his bike, Grace’s already fried nerves were shot and he kept looking over his shoulder like he was expecting Carl or some other member of Stratt’s crew to kidnap him. It was obviously nonsensical, but Grace was afraid in a way that he hadn’t been in years. There wasn’t anything to ever be afraid of on Erid and being on Earth reminded him why he was so cowardly in the first place. His terror only increased when he heard the sound of a shabby old truck pulling up next to when he was trying to unlock his bike from the rack he kept it on. By the time he heard a door open behind him he was ready to make a break for it, bike or no bike.

But it wasn’t Stratt or any one he was familiar he was with on Earth. Instead, he turned around and saw Simon. It was a Simon unlike any he’d seen before. His face wasn’t marred by radiation poisoning and he clearly didn’t have to tear his own arm off in an attempt to escape some kind of horrific fate. Grace had the passing thought that he was as beautiful as he ever was, in that wet middle school parking lot.

He was wearing some sort of outfit that clearly wasn’t fit for a mild San Francisco fall. A heavy duck canvas jacket, thick jeans and slightly heeled boots. It reminded Grace of a cowboy, slightly. It was so different from the comfortable sweats that he wore on Erid. 

Their reunion was long and probably inappropriate for what was still technically a middle school, but Grace didn’t care. Simon helped Grace put his bike in the back of the truck and then handed Grace the keys to it. Simon had sheepishly explained that he had managed to get here, but had almost killed himself and several pedestrians in an attempt to figure out how to drive the fifteen hours it took to get there.

Simon told him on the way that he woke up in the middle of nowhere Wyoming and had thought he’d been dreaming. After an hour of sitting around he figured that he was awake and that this was really happening. He'd immediately tried to figure where Grace was. Simon didn’t have the greatest handle on American geography, but he found his phone and managed to unlock it with his face. Googling ‘Ryland Grace’ and finding the name of the middle school he worked at was easy, too. The maps app was intuitive and would lead him directly to Grace’s workplace. From there, it was mostly a matter of recalling what was necessary for a long trip to San Francisco.

He’d found a wallet with his identification in it and a set of car keys in the pocket of a jacket hanging by the door, though he did grimace upon finding that his name was listed as ‘Simon Edenson’ on the driver’s license. From there he drove straight to the middle school, getting there mid morning. He’d had parked himself there and watched the entrance of the school until he saw Grace get out.

Simon had gotten through most of his explanation by the time Grace tried to pull into the parking lot of the apartment complex. Unfortunately, Grace had also been distracted by the explanation and had accidentally turned the wheel a bit too sharply, which led to him sideswiping a pole while trying to pull into the parking lot of his apartment complex, thereby breaking his leg. This then led to a panicked Grace trying to lead Simon into a phone call with 911. At least they let Simon ride in the ambulance with them.

That led to where they were now. The hospital had called Grace’s emergency contact, though he didn’t know they did until a kind nurse popped into the room to tell him that his brother would be there soon.

“Well? What’s the plan?” Simon repeated, “You know I’m a bit out of my depth here.”

Grace put his face in his hands and peeked at Simon through his fingers, “I don’t know either – oh god, he’s never going to let me live this down, is he?”

Simon shifted uncomfortably in his tiny chair, tapping against his right arm. Grace brought his hands down let his eyes trace its well defined shape. He couldn’t imagine how weird it would be to have it back after spending so much time without it. Especially given how he’d lost it. “Who? Your brother? I don’t know, can’t say I ever met the guy. Only reason why I’m letting you live it down is because I almost did the same damn thing to it ten times yesterday.” Simon slumped. “Don’t know how we’re going to fix it though. I don’t think I have the tools or the knowhow for it.”

Grace slapped his hand to his face again, skewing his glasses. “Oh, god. I completely forgot about that. I don’t think I have the money to fix it, either. Do you?”

Simon shrugged, blowing a piece of hair out of his face. “Maybe. The plastic thing worked fine when I needed it to.”

“The credit card? Jeez. Um, give me your phone, there’s probably a banking app on it.”

“Don’t see why it matters right now,” Simon grumbled, but dutifully turned his phone over to Grace. It took some finagling with the facial ID and fingerprint scanner but Grace eventually got his way into the banking app.

Upon seeing the number highlighted in red just under ‘SIMON’S CHECKING – 10293233’ Grace felt the blood slip from his face. Grace could feel Simon’s gaze boring holes into the side of his head.

“What?”

“Oh, i-it’s nothing.” Grace smashed some more buttons on the cracked phone screen until he found Simon’s savings account. Nothing. Grace stared at the zeroes, desolately. Grace decided it was a problem for later. He held the button on the side of the phone until it shut off completely. He silently held it out to Simon who took it with a furrowed brow.

“What?”

“Nothing,” Grace said, eyes turned up to the tiled ceiling. There was some water damage in the corner of the ceiling. Probably some sort of AC leak. Knowing how much he was expected to pay for this little hospital stay he would’ve hoped that they could afford to fix their condensate drain issues. Or at least address the problem before it could permanently mar the mineral fiber of the tiles.

He could already see himself working double shifts at the coffee shop next to his apartment complex on the weekends. Or maybe Doordash? You could do that on the back of a bike, right? Well, not until his leg healed. He turned to look at Simon, with a considering look in his eyes. “Have you ever thought about doing Doordash?”

Simon wrinkled his brow at him. “What the fuck is a Doordash?”

“It’s something we’re both about to be very familiar with.” Grace sighed, turning back to the ceiling.

~~~

And so they waited for Colt to show up. Simon had proposed just checking Grace out of the hospital before Colt actually got there and wait until they had a better grasp of their situation to see Grace’s brother. Grace argued against it. It would cause more issues down the line if Grace dipped out right before his brother could see him. Especially if Colt had driven the full five hours to San Francisco from LA.

Simon’s impression of Colt back on Erid when Grace would tell stories about him wasn’t great, frankly. It seemed like, to Simon, that Grace was severely underappreciated back on Earth. Colt seemed to be a shining example of this. Simon couldn’t imagine that. No matter what Grace told him, there were some days that Simon couldn’t imagine ever being able to pay Grace back for the second chance he helped give him. Grace was the only person who ever actually managed to not go back on his promise to save him. There were no mountains that Simon wouldn’t move for him because there were no mountains that Grace hadn't already moved for Simon.

And truth be told, Simon had issues understanding exactly what Colt did on Earth and for what purpose. Grace had Simon watch movies with him back on Erid, including the ones that Colt was supposedly in. Grace always pointed out his brother’s false name in the ending credits. The movies were fine, Simon guessed. He didn’t hold the same reverence for them that Grace and presumably Colt seemed to. Simon just couldn’t imagine putting himself in situations where he knew he’d get hurt, and to what end? To have some other person’s face pasted on top of his? For something that wasn’t even real? Simon had caused and been victim to real suffering, the kind of gratuitous violence that made its way into those films. Playacting that… it just left a bad taste in in his mouth.

And Colt’s position in particular just felt selfish. Why make your brother worry about you like that? He heard the horrific stories from after Colt broke his own back to help someone else pretend to fall from a great distance. Grace had already forgiven him, the time and distance soothing old wounds. That wasn’t a problem. Simon could hold a grudge for both of them.

Thankfully, they could hear Colt before they actually saw him. Simon knew it was Colt because Grace started shaking as soon as he heard the stomping and loud voice. Simon shifted back to maintain a friendly distance with Grace and warily watched the door, waiting for it to blow open.

The whirlwind that blew through the door did look like Grace, physically, at least. Simon had never seen a set of identical twins as an adult before and it inspired a strange sense of deja vu.

For one, Colt was loud in a way that was blustering and overwhelming. Simon could tell that even before he said a word. The flashy light blond hair (obviously unnatural compared to Grace’s light brown), the bright colors and the confident swagger told a complete story. Grace could be overwhelming, too, sometimes. But Grace could normally reel himself back. Grace also knew Simon well enough that he immediately knew when to quiet down when it got too much for Simon.

“Oh my god, Ryland! What happened? I got a call that you got into a car crash. How? You don’t even have a car,” Colt exclaimed, scanning Grace over. His eyes hovered over the cast encasing his lower left leg. Grace’s face was frozen, eyes welling up with tears.

Great heaving sobs took over Grace, his body curling in on itself. “O-oh. O-oh, g-god, C-Colt, you’re really here.” Grace uselessly tried to wipe the wetness from his eyes away. Simon reached out to grab his shoulder, trying to ground him. Grace just shook harder.

“Shh, shh, you’re alright. It’ll be okay,” Simon looked up, dark eyes boring into a shocked looking Colt. “it’s just your brother, right? Nothing you haven’t seen before.” Simon’s hand moved down, rubbing circles into Grace’s shaking back.

Colt just stared blankly at both of them. Simon was sure they made quite a scene.

Colt opened his mouth, and then closed it. Confusion was written all over his face. “You okay, dude? I thought they said you just fractured your left tibia? You know, I broke mine a couple years ago. It wasn’t so bad. Just a bit of time in a boot.”

“I-it’s just been so long, y-you know. I d-didn’t think I’d e-ever see y-you again.” Grace wept.

If Colt’s eyebrows furrowed any further, Simon thought his face would get stuck like that. “I-I mean. It’s been a few months since I’ve been up here, but I talked to you last week…” Colt looked around the room. “Where’s your nurse call button? I think you hit your head or something. You’re acting weird.”

Grace gathered himself enough to wave his hand at Colt, the other still rubbing at his eyes. “N-no, it’s okay. I’ve just had a hard couple of months.”

Colt stared at him. “Clearly. What happened to you? You’ve always been a bit of crybaby-” Simon bristled a bit. Grace liked crying but given everything that’d happened to him, Simon thought it was justified, “-but you’ve never been like this.” Colt put his hands on his hips.

“O-oh, I don’t know. I don’t think I can explain. It’s been so long since I’ve seen you.” The words trended upwards in pitch as he said them, and Grace’s wheezing grew into little giggles. Simon winced a bit, he knew he needed to calm Grace down before he sent himself fully off the edge.

“What do you mean? And who the fuck are you, dude?” Colt glared at Simon and then swiveled his gaze to Grace, “Is this a joke o-or a prank? Payback over our last fight? I’ve been busy! You know that. You’re an adult. You won’t die from a couple of missed texts.”

Colt’s words just seemed to make Grace’s breathing more frantic. Simon gently took Grace’s chin and turned it to him, blocking Colt out of Grace’s sight, “Angel, breathe. Like we practiced? You remember practicing this, when you get confused? You don’t have to talk, just remember and breathe.” Grace nodded and closed his eyes, a few tears still slipping out. The shivering started to die down as Grace’s breath evened out. “Good, good.”

Simon glanced back at Colt. Was Grace’s reaction a bit overkill if you didn’t know what was going on? Maybe, but Simon just couldn’t understand seeing your brother in clear distress and reacting in frustration. Simon made sure Grace was breathing properly before standing up fully and stomping over to Colt.

The thick boots that Simon had found in that shitty apartment gave Simon the slightest height advantage and he for sure had more muscle mass than Grace’s shitty brother. “Why are you being an asshole?”

“What are you talking about? He’s the one overreacting.” Colt crossed his arms and scowled. “I’m only going to ask this one more time before I ask security to kick you out of here. Who the fuck are you?”

“Name’s Simon. I’m Grace’s husband.” Simon stuck a hand out.

Simon heard a yelp behind him. Huh, Simon guessed that worked. Sometimes Simon could shock Grace out of spiraling panic.“Ah, not married yet! We… we just got engaged! Yes, that’s it.” Grace said, his voice steadier than it had been.

Colt jerked backwards in confused disbelief, holding a hand up to stop them. “No, you’re not. I would know if you were engaged. Ryland, and you’re not even gay. It wouldn’t be a problem if you were! But I would’ve known about it. You’ve never expressed much interest in dating at all, honestly.” Colt searched Grace’s face, but Simon could tell he couldn’t find what he was looking for in Grace’s eyes.

“Wait… are you serious? Is this... ” His gaze darted between Simon and Grace, instantly melting into a disappointed concern for his brother. Colt moved past Simon slowly until he got to Grace’s side and put his hand on Grace’s uninjured leg.

“Okay, Rylie, I’m gonna get the nurse in here soon, but I need you to be honest with me. Is it the drugs again? Is he giving you drugs in exchange for something?” Colt shot daggers at Simon as he spoke. “You told me you’d call me if you thought about taking anything again. What’s this guy talking about? Confusion? Is that a side effect from something new you’re taking?”

Grace waved his hands, “No, no, I’m not on anything, I promise! Well, not anything that they didn’t give me here…” Grace stopped, clearly weighing his next words. He furrowed his brow and seemed to come to a decision. “I’ve just been having some memory problems. Sometimes I get stressed because it.”

Colt grew visibly more alarmed. “Have you gotten to a neurologist? You should see one, like, right now.”

Grace held up placating hands, “Not yet, bu-”

“No buts. Rylie, we’ve done this before, you know that. You gotta admit- this is concerning, even for you. Weird mood swings, memory issues, and claiming this random guy is your fiance or husband—you guys can’t even agree on that! He doesn’t even seem to know your first name! You crashed a car, and I don’t even know where you got one or how you crashed it. You understand why I think this is concerning, right? And why I think you might be on something?” Colt lost steam towards the end, defeat written across his face and tone.

Grace rushed to tell Colt, “No, no. I get it, but I’m not on any drugs. I don’t do that anymore. Um, I understand why all this would be concerning, but I promise I just had a hard time recently because of the memory thing. I didn’t mean to overreact.”

“And why didn’t you go to a doctor? This isn’t something you should be playing around with. And how did you crash the car? Just not paying attention or are you having other neurological issues?” Colt sat in the chair next to the bed, his body leaning towards his brother.

Simon felt the need to interject at this point. He didn’t have much context for what they were talking about. Grace didn’t really like talking about Earth outside of his brother and former students. Simon respected that. He was the same way with the COI and Eden. But Colt was digging into Grace in a way that Simon didn’t appreciate, “It was my truck and he crashed it into a pole while he was trying to park it. I let him drive it because I’m not great at it either. The fuckin’ parking spots you put ‘em in are tiny here.”

Colt looked incredulously at Simon. “And how did my brother meet a man so bad at driving that he let someone that hadn’t driven in at least five years crash his truck?”

Grace cut in, quickly, “We met online – an astronomy forum.”

“Yeah, that.” Simon said gruffly, hoping this line of questioning would end or that Grace would figure out a way to soothe his brother down. Looking at Colt, Simon doubted it, but Simon had been trying fruitlessly to become more optimistic his entire life. Why give up now?

“Okay, do you have a last name? Or did you and Ryland only exchange one name each?”

Thank the trees, something Simon could answer, even if Simon didn’t like it. “Last name’s Edenson, and no. Grace is just how I knew him by first.” A pause, “On the forum.”

Colt heaved a massive sigh. “Okay, Simon Edenson. I want you to stay right there. I’m going to get someone to look at Ryland.” He got out of his chair and walked out the room, door swinging shut behind him.

Simon and Grace waited for a second, before Grace started laughing. “Oh, god. We’re fucked, aren’t we?”

~~~

Colt had already whipped his phone out and had half dialed Jody’s phone number by the time the door behind him had slammed shut. Yeah, he definitely beelining for the nurse’s station and demanding a neurologist look at Ryland – but he needed to talk to Jody first. He wasn’t going to let them get away with them trying wave away his concern by telling him that they could schedule an appointment weeks down the line. Who knew what would happen in the meantime?

Who knew what had already happened, Colt thought darkly, remembering the scruffy dark haired man that loomed next to Colt’s baby brother. Colt didn’t believe for a second that they had met on some sort of ‘astronomy forum’. Colt considered that he might’ve been Ryland’s drug dealer, but in Colt’s experience, Ryland’s drug dealers tended towards the dweebier side. Other grad students who’d been selling their prescriptions on the side, usually.

As stupid as Ryland could be, he was pretty smart when it came to the drugs. That usually made it harder for Colt to figure out when he’d relapsed, but it also meant that Colt had never known Ryland to buy unmarked street drugs from a shady dealer. He was usually too nervous to trust them.

The phone kept ringing, so he hung up. He shot Jody a hurried text - plz jody respond i thnk rys on the durgs agn. He saw the ellipses appear before seeing her an incoming call from her.

He swiped to accept it immediately, ducking into a single stall bathroom and locking it behind him. “Oh, thank god. I knew you’d have your phone on you. I don’t know what to do.”

“What's going on? I thought you were just checking on him because of his leg.” Jody’s crisp accent usually managed to settle him down, but he was too on edge. He leaned up against sink, the long drive and stress not doing wonders for his back injury.

“Yeah! Me too! I thought he broke it biking or something. Fell down a hill. I don’t know. But I get here and the nurses tell me he got into a car accident. Okay, I figure maybe one of his coworkers gave him a ride and they got into an accident. You know, the weather’s always so miserable here and the roads get wet. But no, the nurse tells me that he was the one driving the car and that he was the one who crashed it-”

Jody stopped him, “I thought he couldn’t drive? I always thought that’s why he didn’t have a car.”

“No, no. Ry can drive, but-” Colt looked to make sure the bathroom door was actually locked and lowered his voice. “he does’t like to talk about it and I try not to pry. He says he’s happy teaching, but I know he doesn’t make a ton of money and I can’t imagine he’d be able to afford a car or its maintenance. I honestly don’t know how he affords rent here. I’ve tried to convince him to move down to LA with me before, but he doesn’t want to. I know it’s still expensive, but I could keep an eye on him there, at least.” Colt rubbed the crooked bridge of his nose and spoke lower. “I don’t know. Sometimes it’s hard to look at Rylie. He’s so, so smart. But god… He can’t get out of his own way. These past few years… I don’t know. I can’t keep watching him destroy his life like this.”

It wasn’t something that Colt voiced very often, even to Jody. It just felt like train wreck after train wreck with Ryland. Colt had hoped that it would’ve culminated with Ryland destroying his own career at that conference of his. Even though the teaching gig of his paid like shit, Colt had thought that it maybe meant that Ryland was finally ready to grow up and get his head out of the clouds.

“I know," Jody said gently, "Hey, could you give me second?”

Colt nodded, forgetting that she couldn't see him for a second,"Oh yeah, I know you're busy." Colt listened to the rustling sounds on the other side of the phone. She was probably walking further away from the set that she was stationed on.

“It's no worry, you're more important right now." She waved off, "How did he even get a hold of the car, then?”

“That’s the thing! There’s some guy here, and he says that it’s his truck and he asked Ryland to drive it because he sucks at driving.” Colt’s voice rose despite himself.

A pause from the other side of the phone, “How’s he worse at driving than Ryland?”

Colt moved to tuck the phone between his ear and shoulder so he could put his face in his hands. “I don’t know! I don’t know anything about the guy! And it gets worse. He claims that Ryland is his husband-”

“What?” Alarm took over Jody’s voice. “That can’t be right. I didn’t even know he was gay.”

“I’m pretty sure he’s not! This guy doesn’t even call him Ryland, Jodes! He calls him by our last name. Ryland told me that they weren’t actually married yet, that they were ‘just’ engaged-”

Jody cut him off, “Colt, did you see a ring? Could this be a prank?”

“It’s not a prank. I thought that too, but both were insistent that they were being serious. A-and that’s not even the worst of it. As soon as I get in the room, Ryland starts crying. A-and Jody - I haven’t seen him cry like that – ever. Not even when we were kids. He kept telling me that he thought he’d never see me ever again, just crazy shit like that. It sounded like he was having a mental breakdown. I asked him if he was on anything and he said no. Then he tells me that he’s been having memory issues. I asked him, have you seen a neurologist and he says no! And the worst part is that this Simon Edenson guy – if that’s even his real name- knows about it before me.” Colt had escalated to whisper shouting by the end of it.

“Colt, do you think this guy could force him to do something he didn’t want to do?” Jody cautioned.

“Yes.” Colt said quickly. “Dude’s big and you know Ryland’s a string bean. He’s tall, but there’s not much muscle on him.”

Jody paused, clearly thinking. “Don’t leave Ryland alone with him. You go get a neurologist and see what they can do. Maybe try to see if they can run a drug test? I’m going to see what I can find on this guy. You said his name was, what? Simon Edelson? Do you want me there?”

“No, he said it was Edenson, like E-D-E-N. You don’t have to come down here. You might not want to get yourself involved in this.”

“Nonsense. Ryland’s your brother. He’s family to me too.”

Colt smiled despite the circumstances. “Thanks, Jodes. I figured you’d know what to do. Love you.”

They said their goodbyes and hung up. Colt shoved his phone in his pocket and raked his hands through his hair one last time. Okay, on to the next thing: convince a nurse to send a neurologist to look at the guy who came in for a broken leg and maybe to get a more comprehensive drug test done.

Thankfully, if there was one thing Colt was good at it was getting attention for himself or others. He kicked up enough of fuss at the nurse's station to get the neurologist and a drug test sent to his brother’s hospital room, so he triumphantly returned to his brother's hospital room with the stodgy looking neurologist in tow. His smile had faltered upon the scene that had met him. Simon and Ryland had been hunched over, heads dangerously close.

“Okay – None of that! Get away from him.” Colt clapped his hands, “I still don’t know who you are and what your intentions are with my brother.”

Ryland jumped at Colt’s voice, “Simon’s fine!” Colt eyed him and Simon, who hadn’t moved an inch at Colt’s voice except to turn his head towards Colt. Colt shuddered under his gaze. Simon’s gaze was dark and bottomless. It felt decidedly creepy to Colt.

Colt shrugged and lifted his hands upwards, “Well, you’re having brain problems. Forgive me for not trusting your judgement with your mystery man. Anyways, I got a neurologist. This is Dr…”

The neurologist took over, “Hello, my name is Dr. Patel. Mr. Grace, your brother is telling me that you’re suffering from memory issues? I can’t promise anything today, but maybe we can look into potential causes.”

Ryland groaned and shifted his eyes. “Um, yes? Just small things.”

“What kind of things would you consider small and how long has this been happening for?” Dr. Patel said. She moved to lean against the cabinet in the corner. Her clipboard was propped up on her arm and she unclipped the pen magnetically attached to it.

“I don’t know, maybe a couple of weeks? I don’t know… I’m a teacher and I’ll forget lesson plans, I guess? Or I’ll forget where I put something and I’ll panic.” She hummed and wrote something down. She looked up.

“How badly do you panic? Would you say it’s affecting your employment?” she asked.

Colt cut in, “I Would say he’s panicking pretty badly. I think he completely blanked when I came into the room. He had some sort of nervous breakdown about how long it’d been since he’d seen me last. But that didn’t make sense. I talked to him last week and came up in person to see him like a couple of months ago.” Ryland had a tendency to downplay his issues like an injured parrot. Memory issues would maybe explain Ryland’s reaction. If Ryland actually couldn’t remember the last time he saw Colt, maybe Ryland’s faulty brain filled in the blanks and made him think it had been much longer. “Wait.” Colt turned to Simon, “You knew about the memory thing. What have you noticed?” He asked, brusquely.

“Hey! Simon, you don’t have answer him.” Ryland said, eyes wide. “Especially if he’s being a jerk.”

“No, no.” Colt shook his finger at Ryland like he was a disobedient child, “If you think he knows you well enough to get married to him, he can answer that!”

Ryland threw his hands up, “I understand your concerns, but I trust him!”

“I don’t!”

“Please! I don’t care about your interpersonal issues! I am trying to diagnose a patient. If neither of you can behave I will separate you.” Dr Patel interrupted. She pointed towards Colt in particular, which he took offense to.

“Hey, you should be kicking him out!” Colt said, pointing to where Simon was. Simon was silent, eyes bouncing between the rest of the room as they argued. His hand had stayed on Ryland’s back for the entire interaction.

“No, he’s the only one that hasn’t raised his voice since I’ve been here.” Dr Patel tapped the clipboard. “Okay, Simon?”

Simon cleared his throat and said, “Yes, that’s me.”

Dr Patel inclined her chin towards him, “What have you noticed, if anything?”

Simon looked towards Ryland and exchanged a meaningful glance with him. Ryland huffed and crossed his arms, but eventually nodded.

Simon turned back to Dr. Patel. “Um, he just gets confused sometimes is what I’ve noticed?” For the first time since Colt had met the guy, he sounded unsure of himself. “Like, he’ll wake up and not know where he is… and then he panics a bit. I can usually talk ‘im down pretty quick, though.”

Patel scribbled something down on her notepad, “Okay.” She sighed. “You don’t have to lie to me. Your brother told me that you have a history of drug abuse?” Dr Patel nodded towards Colt.

Ryland shrugged and wrapped his hands around his shoulders, “Sure, I used to take unprescribed benzodiazepines for anxiety.” He paused, “In, uh, grad school, but it was never as bad as what Colt probably described to you and I haven’t taken anything in a while.”

“I believe you,” Dr Patel said, “but I’m going to have a nurse come in and drug test you.” Ryland slumped and sighed. “I’m also going to schedule you for a brain scan. These symptoms are very concerning and could be a sign of deeper -”

“You can’t do it today?” Colt interrupted her.

Dr Patel leaned away from him a bit. “No, I can’t. Me seeing your brother was already last minute. Anyways, the equipment needs to be scheduled for use in advance unless it’s an actual emergency. If this has been going on for a while, waiting a week likely won’t hurt him.” she told him. “However, I would recommend that you have someone stay with you, Mr. Grace. You’ll need it anyways for the leg, but you shouldn’t be alone with such lapses.”

Ryland said, “Yeah, I understand. Simon’ll be staying with me anyways.”

Simon was already nodding, “Yeah, of course.”

“Me too! I’ll also be staying with you!” Colt jumped in. Jesus, he could not imagine letting Ryland go home alone with that guy. Especially given how emotionally and physically fragile Ryland seemed. If something went wrong with this guy, there was no way for Ryland to get away from him.

Ryland held his hands out, “No, no. You have a job, don’t you?”

“It’s fine, my back’s been acting up anyways. I’ve just been helping Jody around set.”

Something in Ryland’s gaze softened, “I’m sure this hasn’t been helping.”

Dr. Patel clipped her pen back to her clipboard, “I don’t care who stays with you as long as they can help you.” She swiveled back to Colt and pointed at him before leaving, “More stress isn’t good for him, though. You should be less judgmental about your brother’s life choices.” With that she shut the door.

Colt, red-faced, shouted at it, “I’m not homophobic!”

~~~

By the time that Grace had gotten checked out of the hospital, it was the early hours of the morning. He’d already emailed his boss to let him know that he had broken his leg and would be out until he’d be physically able to come back to the classroom, though he winced upon sending the email to her. The subbing shortage was no joke in his school district. Even after all those years, he still remembered that distinctly.

Other than that, he’d spent most of his hospital stay attempting to mediate between Colt and Simon. Not that Simon was actively trying to start anything, really. For how traumatized Simon was when Grace first met him, he didn’t tend towards violence unless you’d really pushed him in a corner. Thankfully (or unfortunately? Grace couldn’t quite decide – Grace knew it was because of how terrible Simon’s life was before coming to Erid) Simon could tolerate quite a bit before biting back. It was a nice contrast to himself. Grace could admit that he tended towards tantrums when he got too tired or fed up.

Even so, it wasn’t difficult to see that Simon had a distaste for Colt. Even on Erid when Grace was telling fond stories of his brother Simon tended to unconsciously make faces that made it clear what he thought of Colt’s antics.

The distain was clearly returned. Grace understood his recalcitrance about the situation, truly. Colt’d driven all this way just to find that his twin brother had gotten engaged to a man he didn’t know about and that said brother was apparently suffering from memory issues. Grace could admit that it sounded very concerning to an outsider.

Grace wasn’t sure how he felt about his ‘memory issues’ being aired out. For one, he assumed he probably wouldn’t be suffering from them anymore. He’d never been given the French memory loss drug here and he wasn’t old enough to be suffering from the age related memory loss that had afflicted him prior. Two, Colt would be hanging out around him and therefore Simon until the memory issues were satisfactorily ‘resolved’. How would one resolve a problem that he’d technically never really had? All those brain scans scheduled for next week would come back clean.

On the other hand, though, Grace could admit that memory issues would be a very convenient excuse for any irregularities in his behavior. Colt had already noticed something different about Grace immediately on seeing him in that hospital bed. Sure, Grace had an extreme reaction to seeing his brother again after so many years, but he couldn’t help it!

Even with all that, as Grace watched his brother pack up the crutches to put in the back of his GMC truck, he was thankful that Colt came to get him. Even if it had went askew immediately. Colt looked much younger than the last time Grace had seen him. That fight was awful, and Grace couldn’t help but wince at the memory of the words that had been thrown at each other and the look on Colt's face as he finally walked away. 

On Erid, Grace would’ve give almost anything to make his last memory of Colt something different. Having that chance felt so surreal.

Plus it would’ve been a pain in the butt trying to get to his apartment on a singular foot. Simon would’ve had to try to pick him up and carry him which would probably take forever. And even better, Colt had more than enough experience driving. He probably wouldn’t get into a car accident on the way to the apartment, unlike Grace.

“Okay, so we’ve gotten everything, right?” Colt checked his watch, “And great, only 2 AM. Not too bad, right?” It was said with some slight sarcasm, but Grace let it slide without comment.

“Yes, that should be it.” Simon said, his shoulder underneath Grace’s arm. Simon was had fallen into the old job of supporting most of Grace’s weight, just like he did when he could on Erid. At least they didn’t have to go through the work of figuring out which angle worked the best for them. They had to do that years ago. Simon always told Grace that he enjoyed the contact, that it grounded him.

“Okay, great.” Colt stopped as he looked towards Simon, “Ryland, can we leave your fake fiance here?”

“He’s my real fiance. Could you please just drop this?” Grace begged and tightened his grip on Simon’s shoulder, “I know it’s a surprise and I didn’t want you to find out about it this way, but please. I don’t feel well and this day has already been awful.” The raging headache from earlier was coming back.

Colt sighed, and looked like he was weighing his options. “Okay, I’ll drop it, but I want real answers tomorrow. Not some bullshit about an astronomy forum or whatever the hell you said earlier – and I want to know why you didn’t tell me about your memory problems.”

Grace sighed and agreed even as panic sunk his stomach to his knees. There was no way for Grace to tell the truth about what happened to him. Colt could handle a crazy story, but Colt would probably institutionalize him if Grace told him what he actually remembered. The story of a one way trip to his death in space that ended with him living on his version of alien paradise with his rock best friend and the random human they found was too farfetched to be believable.

If the memories weren't so clear Grace would’ve had a hard time believing it himself. He probably would have chalked up to a mental break of some sort. 

They had gotten situated in the truck, though Grace wouldn’t call his position comfortable. Simon and Colt had begrudgingly helped each other get Grace into the backseat. Since his leg was in it’s bulky cast it had to be haphazardly strewn over the seat to keep it straight. After his leg got sorted, no one spoke outside of the Bluetooth voice calling directions out over the soft croon of the Taylor Swift playing from the truck speakers.

~~~

Simon was thrilled that this night was almost over. They’d finally pulled into the parking lot of Grace’s apartment complex. Getting Grace out of the truck was more unpleasant than getting him inside of it, but thankfully they had gotten Grace leant up on Simon again like he belonged there. Simon hadn’t had a good look at the complex earlier with all the panic and confusion when Grace crashed his truck. It looked different, lit by the dim street lamps that flickered over them.

It wasn’t a good different. It actually looked a lot shittier now that Simon could take it all in. He hadn’t noticed earlier, but there were bars over most of the windows. The entire complex looked poorly constructed and cheap. It was worse than where Simon found himself yesterday, and that place was no prize.

Simon could tell that Colt was thinking something similar as his eyes darted about. They landed on a particularly shoddy patch job on the exterior of one of the units and he blanched. “Jesus Christ, Ryland. This place gets worse every time I come here.”

Grace flapped his hand at Colt as he dug his other into the bag of stuff he got back from the hospital. As he triumphantly unearthed a set of keys he said, “At least I live on the first floor. Imagine how awful it would be if I lived on the second floor.”

“If you lived on the second floor, I’d be paying for a hotel tonight and we’d be driving back to LA in the morning.” Colt told Grace, flatly. “And to be honest, I’m still thinking about it.”

“Well… that aside,” Grace drew the words out, “I don’t want either of you panic, but my apartment is a bit of a mess right now.”

Simon snorted as they walked/hopped to the door labeled 112, “Grace, I’ve never seen any of your living spaces ‘clean’. There’s always stuff all over the place.”

Simon noticed that he had to wiggle the doorknob this way and that for the lock to fully disengage. As Grace worked the doorknob, Colt nodded. “Hate to agree with him, but he’s right. Can’t be anything I haven’t seen before.”

Simon helped Grace cautiously limp in while Colt flicked the lights on. As the room lit up, Simon would’ve liked to take the words back.

Simon liked it neat, he wouldn’t lie. There was a nice balance where everything had a place where it belonged, but it wasn’t so empty as to remind Simon of growing up on a doomed space station with ever-dwindling resources. Grace tended not to care as much and would leave things a mess until Rocky barreled through to complain about how messy it was. It had actually caused a fair few arguments between Grace and Simon when they first started cohabiting in their biodome together.

Eventually Simon learned to accept that Grace would get distracted and occasionally leave their house a mess. Grace would learn to use the storage bins that Simon’d asked the Eridians to make and contain some of the sprawl. He also agreed to not screw around with the various objects that Simon specifically set out as decoration.

All that to say— this was not Grace’s typical mess brought by an absent mind that didn't care. It looked like someone had ransacked the apartment only to realize there wasn’t anything of value to be found, but were desperate enough to need to tear it apart a second time, just in case they missed something the first time.

It was impressive how much debris managed to cover such a simple and cramped apartment. A tiny combined living room and kitchen, an open door that clearly led to Grace’s bedroom and another open door that led to the bathroom. None of the layout seemed out of the ordinary for an Earthen apartment (insofar as far as Simon knew).

However, every single drawer and cabinet was pulled open, its contents dumped onto the limited counter space and then fallen to floor when the countertops couldn’t handle the sheer volume of items on it. The little kitchen table had dirty plates stacked on top of it, with a half crumpled purple bag left on it. If Simon squinted hard enough he could see that the bag had the words ‘BEEF AND BEAN BURRITOS’ emblazoned across it. The chair accompanying the table was lying on its side, a perfect tripping hazard.

Heaps of clothes and shoes were scattered across the couch and any and all horizontal surfaces. The little wall decoration that existed were crooked and half falling off the wall. Even with all that, what took the cake was the all the papers. They’d been thrown and tossed all over the apartment, covering everything else. Simon peered at them. They looked like the school papers Grace would make for his Eridian students. He assumed this was the human version. Some were torn and looked have once been waterlogged.

There wasn’t a spot that wasn’t covered with something. It almost reminded Simon of what he attempted to do to his jail cell when he was first put in solitary. There wasn’t enough of anything in his cell to really destroy it, though.

“What the fuck?” Simon heard Colt breathe behind him. Simon found himself agreeing with Colt for the first time that night. “What the fuck?” Colt repeated himself.

Simon felt more than saw Grace’s wince against Simon. “Yeah… Sorry, I told you guys it was mess around here.”

“This is more than a mess! When did you even have time to do this?” Colt said, his voice growing louder.

“… Um. Yesterday – or the day before, I guess. I woke up, and I guess I didn’t know where I was…” Grace murmured, “I panicked and tore the place apart.” Simon heart broke for Grace. He couldn’t imagine the stress if he woke up back on Eden or even worse, a COI jail cell. Waking up in Wyoming or wherever he was wasn’t easy for Simon, but it didn’t really feel like he had found himself stuck back in time. He was able to move forward and focus on finding Grace with ease because of it.

Simon spotted a place on the couch where it’d be pretty easy to clear it of the mess. He patted Grace’s side to let him know it was time to move and led him over to the spot. He quickly cleared it, revealing brownish grey upholstery.

“Here you go,” Simon said as he helped Grace down to the spot. He straightened up and put his hands on his hips. “Okay, I understand you have a lot of questions, and I do too. But it’s late and I think we’re all tired. I’m gonna go and clear Grace’s bed, could you do the rest of the couch? And keep Grace some company?” Simon looked to Colt.

Colt was still staring wide-eyed at the damage done to the apartment, but jerked back when he realized that Simon was addressing him. Good. The exhaustion was finally getting to Simon and he thought the adrenaline crash would kill him. He’s not sure if he could handle another fight with Grace’s brother right now. Colt nodded, “Yeah, sure. I can do that. Not sure where to put this stuff though.”

Grace sighed where he was leaned up against the arm of the couch. He waved a hand listlessly. “Where ever. It’s not like it can get messier.” Simon overheard on the way to the bedroom. He tried not to listen to anymore of their conversation. Simon was sure that Colt was trying to talk Grace into going with him back home with Colt. Seeing this, Simon couldn’t blame him.

The bedroom wasn’t that bad. It was still a mess, but it reminded him of their bedroom Erid. Simon smiled wryly. He guessed that Grace subconsciously put all the furniture the way he had it back on Earth. Judging by the state of the room Grace had significantly more clothes here than they had back on Erid. By the time they reached old age, most of the clothing from the Hail Mary had been worn to shreds.

Simon himself didn’t help matters. None of the clothes fit him well, he was always a bit broader in the chest and thighs for them to accommodate him well. He wore a lot of what Grace called sweatpants and his looser shirts. Even still, they ended up stretched thin.

There was an empty basket in the room and Simon started dumping clothes in there. There were too many to comfortably fit which made Simon wonder when Grace last did laundry. The basket was overflowing by the time he had gotten done, but whatever. He pressed down on the top to try to make it fit better.

Next were the papers. He just collected the ones on top of the bed and left them in a messy stack on top of some other junk on the shabby looking dresser. He attempted to straighten out the sheets a bit, but quit messing with them after a minute. It didn’t really matter. He kicked some of the scattered junk on the floor to make a trip hazard free pathway for Grace. He looked at his handiwork when he finished. Not perfect by any means but he shrugged. Good enough for what must’ve been 3 AM.

Simon poked his head out of the room to look at where Colt and Grace were sitting. The pair looked exhausted but clearly were discussing something serious. Probably Simon, honestly. Simon understood but it didn’t make his life easier. The past two days had felt more like a dream than anything else. Earth was so different from what he could’ve imagined. He’d never breathed in fresh air before and it wasn’t anything like he’d dreamed of. He wasn’t quite willing to be rid of spending time with Grace on Grace’s home planet just yet.

“Hey, I’ve got the bedroom as good as it’s gonna get for now.” Simon said and shook his head. “Grace, you really did a number on this place.”

“Yeah, yeah. I know.” Grace grumbled, “You gonna come over and get me?”

Simon hummed, “Of course. Always, you know that.” Simon had spent so much time helping Grace get around as he aged and the gravity destroyed his joints. Simon always promised to be whatever crutch Grace needed for as long as he could. Simon was lucky in that way. Erid's gravity never seemed to affect him much.

As Simon helped Grace up, he saw Colt’s face. An unreadable expression was written all over it. Despite that, Simon could guess what he was thinking. He jerked his head towards the bedroom, “You and Grace want to take the bed? Should be big enough for two. I’ll take the couch.”

“Hgh,” Grace murmured, and blearily blinked wide eyes up at him, “you’re not coming to bed with me?”

“Not tonight. I think your brother had a tough day and probably needs to sleep in a real bed more than me.”

Colt stared at Simon warily, “Sure… I can do that.” It was clear that Colt was still trying to size Simon up and figure out his whole deal. He’d grown used to the leery looks when he was in prison, though they usually lessened when they figured out who Simon was. The reputation of the Butcher usually preceded him.

Simon didn’t answer him and instead went to set Grace up in bed properly. When he returned, he just told Colt, “He’s all yours.”

“Okay, see you tomorrow, I guess?” Colt crossed his arms.

Simon snorted, “It’s already tomorrow.” Colt just took that with a nod and left the room.

Simon collapsed on the couch. He waited just until he heard the lock of Grace’s door click to fully close his eyes. His last semi-conscious thought was of how the couch wasn’t too bad, if slightly worse than the one back home.